UK Edition
Muslim women awarded $17m after NYPD made them remove hijabs
Jamilla Clark and Arwa Aziz say they felt ‘violated’ as court rules forcing someone to take off religious clothing ‘like strip search’
New York City has agreed to pay out $17.5 million (£13.7 million) over two women who claimed they were violated when they were forced to remove their hijabs to have their mugshots taken.
Jamilla Clark and Arwa Aziz, who are both Muslim, sued the city in 2018 after police officers made them take off their religious coverings in front of dozens of men.
Damages from the settlement, which total just over $13 million once administrative costs and lawyers’ fees are deducted, will be split among the thousands of people who are expected to file claims on similar grounds.
“When they forced me to take off my hijab, I felt as if I were naked; I’m not sure if words can capture how exposed and violated I felt,” Ms Clark said after the settlement had been agreed.
“I’m so proud today to have played a part in getting justice for thousands of New Yorkers.”
‘In full view of dozen male officers’
Ms Clark had “wept and begged to put her hijab back on” when she was told to remove her hijab after she was arrested on a violation of a protection order in Manhattan in 2017, according to the complaint.
Meanwhile, Ms Aziz, who was also arrested on a violation of a protection order in Brooklyn cried as she “stood with her back to the wall, in full view of approximately one dozen male NYPD officers and more than 30 male inmates”.
The New York Police Department changed its policy in 2020 to allow people to leave on religious head coverings for arrest photographs if they are not obstructing their faces.
In a statement on Friday, Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesman for the city’s Law Department, said the legal action had “resulted in a positive reform”.
“The agreement carefully balances the department’s respect for firmly held religious beliefs with the important law enforcement need to take arrest photos,” he said.
“This resolution was in the best interest of all parties.”
“Forcing someone to remove their religious clothing is like a strip search,” said Andrew F Wilson, a lawyer who is representing the women.
In 2018, the city reached a $60,000 settlement with each of three Muslim women who had been forced to remove their hijabs for arrest photographs and said that their religious rights had been violated.